Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) eBook

The Northmen did not, however, spend all their lives
in harrying and burning other countries. When
the seas were quiet in the long, summer days, they
would go off, as I have told you, on their wild expeditions.
But when summer was over, and the seas began to grow
rough and stormy, the viking bands would go home with
their booty and stay there, to build their houses,
reap their fields, and, when spring had come again,
to sow their grain in the hope of a plenteous harvest.

There was thus much that the viking lad had to learn
beyond the art of wielding the battle-axe, poising
the spear, and shooting an arrow straight to its mark.
Even a free-born yeoman’s son had to work, work
as hard as had the slaves or thralls who were under
him.

The old history books, or Sagas, as the Norseman called
them, have, among other songs, this one about the
duties of a well-born lad:

“He now learnt
To tame oxen
And till the ground,
To timber houses
And build barns,
To make carts
And form plows.”

Indeed, it would have surprised you to see the fierce
warriors and mighty chiefs themselves laying aside
their weapons and working in the fields side by side
with their thralls, sowing, reaping, threshing.
Yet this they did.

Even kings were often to be seen in the fields during
the busy harvest season. They would help their
men to cut the golden grain, and with their own royal
hands help to fill the barn when the field was reaped.
To king and yeomen alike, work, well done, was an honorable
deed.

Long before the Sagas were written down, the stories
of the heroes were sung in halls and on battle-fields
by the poets of the nation. These poets were
named skalds, and their rank among the Northmen was
high.

Sometimes the Sagas were sung in prose, at other times
in verse. Sometimes they were tales which had
been handed down from father to son for so many years
that it was hard to tell how much of them was history,
how much fable. At other times the Sagas were
true accounts of the deeds of the Norse kings.
For the skalds were ofttimes to be seen on the battle-fields
or battleships of the vikings, and then their songs
were of the brave deeds which they had themselves seen
done, of the victories and defeats at which they themselves
had been present.

The battles which the vikings fought were fought on
the sea more frequently than on the land.

Their warships were called long-ships and were half-decked
The rowers sat in the center of the boat, which was
low, so that their oars could reach the water.
Sails were used, either red or painted in different
stripes, red, blue, yellow, green. These square,
brightly colored sails gave the boats a gay appearance
which was increased by the round shields which were
hung outside the gunwale and which were also painted
red, black, or white. At the prow there was usually
a beautifully carved and gorgeously painted figurehead.
The stem and stern of the ships were high. In
the stern there was an upper deck, but in the forepart
of the vessel there was nothing but loose planks on
which the sailors could step. When a storm was
raging or a battle was being fought, the loose planks
did not, as you may imagine, offer a very firm foothold.